A lifelong martial artist, Sam Soliman this morning became a boxing world champion at age 40 when he won a unanimous points decision over Felix Sturm in his opponent’s home country.
The bout took place at the the König Palast in Krefeld, Germany and was broadcast live in Australia on Mainevent PPV.
It must be mentioned that Soliman had previously held the IBF middleweight title after previously defeating Sturm for the WBA middleweight title only for Soliman to fail a post-fight drug test and the result ultimately being overturned to a no-contest by the German boxing commission. Soliman desperately protested his innocence and was cleared after the B sample tested clean and showed no traces of any substance.
A 17 year professional boxer whom started his training in Karate, Tae Kwon Do and Kickboxing, Soliman got his ultimate revenge as he took control in the later stages of the fight after some close early rounds. Soliman stayed in his opponents face, constantly pressuring the German champion who ended his fourth stint as a middleweight champion.
Sturm was gracious in defeat commenting post-fight “He won, clearly. He kept moving. he was hard to hit.”
After the fight Soliman dedicated his performance to legendary AFL player and coach Tom Hafey who had recently passed away.
With the win, Soliman takes his professional record to 44-11, while Sturm falls to 39-4-2.
Unfortunately over in Macao in China, Armenian born Australian Vic Darchinyan continued his spiral fall losing for the fourth time in his last six bouts as the 38 year-old was knocked out by Nicholas Walters who remained undefeated.
Walters knocked down Darchinyan in round two and followed it up in the fifth round with knock-down before getting the KO win. With the win Walters capture the world WBA featherweight title and moves to 24-0. Darchinyan falls to 39-7-1.
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